Howdy,

In the back of Boating magazine there used to be an ad for a flip-down
gang-plank that supposedly made it easier to get on & off your boat.
It didn't look to be more than 2 feet by 4 feet, they might have been
spring-loaded too.

Has anyone used anything similar to this? Our marina recently put in
new docks, and they're more than a foot higher than the previous ones.
My parents are getting older and can't do a high-jump to get off
their boat at low tide. It's a little 23' sailboat, without much deck
space for something permanent.

Thanks for any shared experiences with solving such an issue.

"Rich" wrote in message
om...
Howdy,

Has anyone used anything similar to this? Our marina recently put in
new docks, and they're more than a foot higher than the previous ones.
My parents are getting older and can't do a high-jump to get off
their boat at low tide. It's a little 23' sailboat, without much deck
space for something permanent.

Are the docks floating, or fixed?

If the level of the tide matters (fixed docks instead of floating) then the
range the ramp would need to accomodate the entire range of tidal swings. I
would expect this to be at least a few feet and could be much more,
depending on where you are.

A short, steep ramp can be very difficult to walk! To keep the angle from
becoming too steep would require a fairly long ramp, which might not be
possible down to a 23' boat.

I would expect that any such ramp would need to be locally constructed, as
the shipping cost would be prohibitive. I would start by talking to the
marina management, if for no other reason to find out how they would feel
about mounting something like that to their docks. If they are OK with it,
they might be able to direct you to a local shop that could build something
suitable.

Rod

On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 12:54:20 -0800, "Rod McInnis"
wrote:
Our marina recently put in
new docks, and they're more than a foot higher than the previous ones.
My parents are getting older and can't do a high-jump to get off
their boat at low tide.

==================================

Rubber Maid makes a nice little plastic stool for about ten dollars
which you might find useful. It's very light and you could easily
stow it below or in a cockpit locker. The other possibility is to
leave a plank at your permanent dock and just swing it aboard when you
need it. It's common for folks with large boats to have dock stairs
permanently at their slip, why not a plank?